Pumpkin Gate
by Rutledge
Summary: Why is Riks different? Is it the fact that she lost her father to a fire long ago, or that she grew up alone with her uncle? Or it is that on her birthday she made a wish…and it came true?
1. The Call

THE CALL

Opening the front door she peeked in. The lounge room was empty, videotapes and a newspaper scattered in a pile, just as she left it. Quietly she closed the door and locked it. Valary was relieved that her parents and brother weren't home. Now she could spend a quiet afternoon surfing the net and starting assignments that were due in a couple of days.

She had just put down her bag when the phone rang. Sighing, Valary quickly made for the phone and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"HEY VALARY!" The person on the other side practically screamed into the phone.

Rubbing her ear Valary replied, "Hey Riks." She heard her chuckling quietly.

"What do you want?" Valary was half annoyed and half curious about her friend calling. Riks hardly ever rang anyone for a chat, but she didn't have to yell into her ear.

"I was just wondering," She said a bit too casually, "if you're coming to my birthday slash Halloween party tomorrow?"

"Of course I am." Valary was getting suspicious about Riks. Why was she asking now?

"You better be there," she warned her heartily. But her tone changed- she seemed distracted and mysterious. "Man, something's just happened. You gotta see it."

"Why? What's happened?" Valary's curiosity was now aroused.

"My birthday wish has come true." She had said it so quietly that Valary thought she might have heard wrong.

"Wha-? Riks?" Valary was now alarmed. She had always thought Riks was a schizophrenic, but she was also the most mature person in their group.

"Come tomorrow," Riks said abruptly. "I'll show you. It'll be much more- _fun_- if we go at night."

"Night? Wait, we're we going? Riks I am _not_ getting into trouble because of you again."

She chuckled her quiet chuckle and said, "You love me. Don't deny it. Just come okay? And oh- don't forget to _dress up_."

And with a last little chuckle Riks hung up.

--------

yeh I know, no Halloween…yet


	2. Party Thief

PARTY THIEF

Siana waved her mum goodbye before crossing the road to the party. She slung her backpack over her shoulder and entered through the gate. Loud music blared from inside the house. Black and orange streamers hung from the top of the veranda, and a pumpkin with a carved face sat in a chair by the door. Siana giggled. The pumpkin was obviously made by Riks- no one else could carve such an annoyed look of a face.

She entered the house without knocking and immediately ran into some of her friends.

"Oh wow," a girl exclaimed over her costume. "That is _so_ cute!" She pointed at Siana's cat-ears headband.

"Are you meant to be Cat Woman?" asked a guy.

"No, I'm just a cat. So where's our hostess?"

The guy and girl shrugged. They were dressed up as Mickey and Minnie Mouse, except with littleadjustments here and there. Especially with mini-_Minnie's _– skirt.

As Siana walked through the house she noticed how impressively decorated it was. When the streamers blew in the warm spring wind they seemed liked snakes, writhing in the air. Spooky looking balloons were floating around as if they had a life of their own, and the cobwebs placed around benches and tables were thin and sticky. Siana was amazed. So realistic, she thought. She reminded herself to ask Riks where she got the decorations from.

Making her way past another small group of friends whom had dressed as opposite genders, she found Riks and Valary, and the rest of the people who were invited floundering around in the pool. The source of the loud music was found on top of the roof where someone had strapped it to the gutter.

If there was a prize for most glamorous outfit, Valary would definitely have received it, Siana thought.

Valary wore a corset which seamed to be made of strips of a creamy coloured material. With it was a long and narrow black skirt that reached her ankles and spread out like the roots of a tree. She had dyed her above-shoulder hair so that it was a blood red, and wore purple make-up around her eyes. She looked evil, fascinating, glamorous and eccentric all at once.

Riks on the other hand seemed like a dirty rag compared to Valary. She wore a dress of sorts that looked to be home made, and had been stitched up from different types of fabrics. Spots, swirls and stripes covered small patches of the dress, and she had drawn stitches on her arms, legs, neck and face. Riks eyelashes were even longer and darker, and she had powdered her face so that it wasn't its natural dark tone.

"Nice dress Raggedy-Anne," Siana smirked. "Did your grandmother make that thing, or have you started home ed. classes?"

Riks just smiled her leering smile, and chuckled her sneering chuckle and said coolly, "Actually I got this straight from the manufacturer. I was going to take you guys there today, but we'll have to wait for these people to go." She indicated to everyone around and gave a small wink to Valary. "Keep your hopes up and my wish you might see. Drinks anyone?"

Back in Halloween Town the sky became an orange glow, and the night became day. A skeleton rooster crowed as a woman with sewn lips woke up yawning. Sally got out of bed and opened the window. The sky was unusually bright that day, in fact it was brighter than any of the days in Halloween Town. She stood in the light, taking in the warmth that it gave. Sally noticed how much prettier the world seemed, then shaking herself out of her daze she walked to the cupboard to change out of her night clothes.

Opening it she found cobwebs and spiders nestled in the corners. She checked under the bed, in the kitchen and even in Dr Finklestein's laboratory.

Her patience wore thin. Sally stormed back up the stairs into her room and exclaimed, "WHERE'S MY DRESS?"


	3. Shattered Glass Slipper

before starting i'd like to says thanx to ladybirdbuzz1! (first reviewer)

-----

SHATTERED GLASS SLIPPER

When Riks had gone to get her drink Siana commented to Valary,

"Bit of an odd design, that dress of hers. 'Bet Cinderella wouldn't even wear that."

"Just because I'm wearing the dress doesn't mean you have to make fun of me!"

Turning around Siana came face to face with a girl with long brown hair tied in a bun. She wore a pretty blue dress with a plastic tiara on her head.

Annabelle's make-up was smeared from fresh tears and her face was creased with rage. Some girls close by had stopped chatting and were watching.

"Wha-? No! Annabelle I didn't mean _you_-"

"Sure you didn't," she shot back. "No, I just _happened_ to be standing _right_ behind you."

More people had stopped and were watching intently. A couple of guys sniggered at Annabelle.

"No," Siana pleaded, "you don't understand, I meant that-"

"Don't understand?" She screamed. "DON'T UNDERSTAND? You think I-I'm s-s-stupid or-or something?" She sobbed between breaths.

Quite a crowd had appeared around the two, but the only sound that could be heard was Siana and Annabelle.

Siana was horrified. She hadn't meant to upset Annabelle in any way. It was quite scary for her to see her like that.

"Annabelle, I didn't mean it!"

"What's going on?" A voice boomed.

--------


	4. FID: Friend in Distress

Wow! People like this! Woohoo! Thankyou reviewers, and yes Jack would very much appreciate his clothes back….

F.I.D.-FRIEND IN DISTRESS

Riks pushed past the crowd and saw Annabelle and Siana.

"Huh?"

Siana glanced at Riks, but Annabelle jabbed her finger at Siana.

"Sh-she's been i-i-insulting me!" Annabelle stammered. "First sh-she made fun of m-my dress, then the _scrag_ said I was s-_stupid_!"

"No!" Siana protested. "I didn't mean it Riks! She's got it all wrong!"

"You b# !" She marched at Siana, raised her hand and swung it with all her strength across her face.

Siana stood there shocked. The sound of the slap seemed to echo around the air. Everyone stood there gaping at Annabelle, all but Riks who had a smile playing at her mouth. However she got a grip on herself and steeped forward from the crowd.

"Annabelle."

Annabelle started. Her eyes darted around looking at the people around her. They stared back, their eyes sinking into her, their faces lined with expressions of surprise and shock. She spun around and tore into the decorated house with her dress flowing behind her, sending anyone in her way flying.

Siana started after, but Riks yelled for her to wait. She turned on Riks.

"She needs us."

"I know," Riks spoke gently. "But we need to leave her alone for a bit."

Valary swayed towards the house, but then stopped herself.

"You're right," she muttered. "You're always right."

Riks was stunned. Did Siana think that she, Riks, was _always right_? Did everyone else think that?

"I think I'll get a drink." Riks snapped out of her thoughts just as Siana walked off towards the pool.

"Sia-! Oh what's the use?" Riks mumbled. Sighing, she went and sat at an empty table.

Everyone had gone back to normal. They were chatting again, and had all wandered off in different directions. Some gave Riks accusing looks as they walked by.

She sighed. The party wasn't turning out too good. She had only organized the party so that she wouldn't be such an unsociable person. Come to think of it, she had not had a party since the fifth grade.

There's always tonight, a voice nagged at the back of head.

_Tonight…yes…tonight… _

Riks seems a bit evil….mwahaha


	5. Through the Door

THROUGH THE DOOR

"Siana!"

She looked up.

Siana looked close to tears, her eyes were watering and her face was now a bright red. Riks approached her carefully.

Laying a hand on her shoulder Riks asked, "You wanna go home?"

Siana shook her head violently, spilling some of her drink.

"I-I…I didn't mean it, really," she said softly.

"Wha'd'you say to Annabelle?"

"Um…" Siana didn't want to tell Riks what she thought of her costume- her comment had caused enough trouble already.

Riks patted her on the back. "It's okay," she said reassuringly. "You don't have to tell me."

Siana felt so guilty that she blurted it out.

"I was making fun of your costume and said that Cinderella would never wear it," she said so fast that Riks asked her to repeat it.

"Annabelle was right behind me, a-and then…" she shrugged. "Everything happened."

Siana waited for Riks to start yelling, telling her what a cow she was, slapping her just like Annabelle had.

She waited, and waited.

Riks stared at her, her dark eyes at Siana's clear blue eyes. After an eon had passed Riks' mouth began to twitch. Her eyes creased, and for a second Siana saw how pretty Riks was when she smiled before she doubled up laughing.

"Annabelle!" Valary called as she walked into the house. Surprisingly no one was around, including Annabelle. She checked the toilets and guest room, and then decided on looking in the bedrooms.

Finding Riks' room with the door closed she decided that Annabelle must be in there. Quietly she put her hand on the knob and ever so slowly opened the door to find…

--------

Cliffhanger!!! argh!!()

Riks, Siana Lee, Valary and Annabelle are mine! MINE! Don't own TNBC, wish I did, but I don't…yet. mwahahaha


	6. This is Halloween

I've got a lot of cliffhangers…mwahahaha

------

THIS IS HALLOWEEN

The room was trashed. Make up and stationery covered the floor. A mirror had been smashed to bits so that when Valary moved it showed a hundred Valarys moving. What was more intriguing was the fact that Annabelle wasn't there.

Valary sighed. She figured that Annabelle had run off home. Feeling rather glum she went to exit the room when she noticed a peculiar painting on the wall. It was a huge picture of a pumpkin with brooding eyes and a nasty grin on its face. Valary's stomach twisted, for the painting was rather frightening. It seemed to leer right at her, as if it was actually watching her.

_Boys and girls of every age,_

_Wouldn't you like to see something strange?_

Valary whipped around, her eyes wide with terror. Who spoke? She looked back at the pumpkin and had the craziest thought that it had sung the rhyme. Moving closer to the pumpkin she noticed how strange it seemed, almost like it wasn't there though she could see it. It was neither transparent nor ghost-like, rather a 2D image covering something. Transfixed by its strangeness she moved closer. She could hear ghastly music, so faint that she thought she might be imagining it. Its tune was simple but rather eerie.

_In this town we call home_

_Everyone hail to the pumpkin song_

Standing in front of the pumpkin, it seemed to beckon to her. She was so absorbed in it that she didn't realize her hand was reaching towards it. Her eyes became blank. Spellbound, she touched the wall… and felt nothing.

Then she was swallowed up by the picture, falling into the nothingness, her body paralyzed with terror and her ears filled with the eerie song of unsaid voices.

---------

My first attempt at horror…or something like it.

This is short, but the next one's longer…


	7. Missing In Action

MISSING IN ACTION

The party had begun to lighten up again. Late into the afternoon most people were wet from being thrown or pushed into the pool. A volley ball net was set up in the yard, and already people were dividing groups and making bets on who's going to win. Music blared from the sound system strapped to the gutter pipe on the roof, and underneath teens danced to the hip hop beats. It was a wild party of ghosts and pirates, faeries and demons, and even cartoon characters.

Riks was by the pool having a sculling competition against a guy.

"Scull! Scull! Scull!" the small crowd chanted as Riks and Spencer emptied glass after glass, seeing which could drink their punch the fastest.

After her tenth drink of punch Riks was feeling pretty nauseous, and heartily put down her glass in defeat.

"Wahoo! Yeah! You lose, I win! Ha ha!" cried out Spencer as all his popular friends cheered.

"Eh, I feel sick." He proceeded to puke his last drink drink into an empty bowl. His friends cheered even more while everyone else cried out in disgust.

"Yuck!"

"Take it somewhere else man!"

Laughing, Riks got up and started to head to the house for the bathroom when Siana's worried face popped in front of her.

"Where's Annabelle?" she demanded. Riks stunned, quickly said, "I don't know, I haven't seen her." The fight that had happened nearly an hour ago suddenly came back to her. Riks had been so busy trying to get the party started again that she had completely forgotten the event.

Feeling rather stupid and guilty she said hastily, "Come! Let's go find her."

"I've already looked around," Siana cried. "She's not out here, and she's not in the house. And Riks your room is totally trashed."

Riks stopped. She seemed a bit confused, and then something dawned on her. She looked quite horrified, and suddenly sprinted towards the house.

"Riks wait! It's not that bad!" Yelled Siana as she followed after her.

Riks walked slowly into her room, carefully stepping around her beloved mirror, now in tiny pieces on the floor. Her favourite photo of her dad, the only memory that she had left of him, had been knocked aside; and her school text books had been flung across the room as well.

But she was not concerned about the state of her room. She was preoccupied with the door. No one knew its purpose except for Riks. Her only guess was that Annabelle had gone through. After the misunderstanding with Siana, Annabelle would have easily opened it. Riks made for the door, but then realized that if she went then people would notice her disappearance, and Siana would be left behind quite baffled.

"Where do you think she'll be?"

Siana's voice brought Riks back to their present situation. She was standing there looking at her intently.

"I know where she is," Riks replied. "We'll get to her as soon as the party's over. Don't worry," she said confidently when she saw Siana's concerned face. "Annabelle's gonna be alright."

But in the back of Riks' mind she thought to herself, _I just hope she doesn't freak out _too_ badly_.

------


	8. Asylum

ASYLUM

"Aaaaah!" Annabelle was falling down, down. She glimpsed the black night sky with a bright round moon and dark buildings before landing in water. She went under, choking on the thick liquid which did not taste like water. She kicked and flailed, trying to move upwards. She had lost sense of direction, and started panicking. It was dark, and the murky liquid was impenetrable. Gasping for air, she waved her hands wildly, blindly trying to find something to hold onto. Her hands touched something slimy, and though her skin crawled, she seized it with both hands and pulled herself up. Her lungs burned, but she could feel the water becoming less dense. Suddenly her head was no longer in water, and she took in deep, long uneven breaths which hurt her chest.

"What is this? Who dares disturb me!" a deep female voice boomed.

Annabelle whirled around and screamed. She screamed so loud that she thought she might burst her own ears, for the thing that had spoken was hideous. It had green scaly skin that looked slimy to touch and large eyes that glowered at her. Annabelle realized horribly that it was the thing that she had grabbed. Frozen with utter terror she gaped at the monster that seemed to be female. Her legs had gone numb and she wildly tried to support herself with her arms.

"What are you doing here? Get out!"

Before Annabelle could move, the monster had grabbed her, and with strong arms hurled her out of the water. Landing hard on smooth concrete, she tumbled further until she hit a wall, and lay there stunned. After a moment, she twitched, slowly regaining herself. Groaning with effort, she got up. Annabelle was sure that she had had a concussion and was now dreaming, for she was no longer at Riks' place, but somewhere else entirely.

It was night, and a huge moon loomed in the sky. She was surrounded by buildings that seemed out of perspective, colourless and shabby looking. The water that she had landed in was in fact a fountain which seemed to be the centre of the place. Her heart raced and she quickly backed up to put as much space between herself and the fountain, for she did not want to meet the green fish monster again. Bumping into something she spun around to see that it was not the wall but a structure of some sort with two beams about ten metres high. After noticing the sharp blades at the top, she realized that it was in fact a guillotine.

Annabelle was scared and wet. Her dress weighed down on her shoulders. She had no idea where she was or how she got there. She had just run into a fish monster, and was standing below a device that has not been used for centuries. Her heart felt it was going to burst and her head was spinning.

She ran, not knowing where to, hopelessly trying to dodge the shadows that followed her. She ran down gloomy streets before stopping beside a wall to catch her breath. Her heart beat so loud that she wondered why no one was yelling at her to keep it down.

Breathing more steadily, she started to feel tears well in her eyes. She felt so guilty about yelling at Siana and ruining Riks' party. Now she was going to be seen as a stupid baby, and it was because she had yelled at her friend for something she shouldn't have been worrying about, and now she was in hell, atoning for her sin. Annabelle was so caught up in self-guilt that she did not notice the horrible music playing beside her.

The band watched the strange looking girl. She was unlike anything in Halloween Town. She was hardly scary looking at all, just a sad lonely figure. She reminded them of their leader, Jack, and how he used to look so down. But now he's happy, now that's he's met Sally that lovely girl.

Annabelle turned around to keep moving and finally noticed them watching her. She froze, her eyes almost popping out of her head. They stood there staring at one another, not daring to make a move.

Finally the cello player spoke up.

"You alright there lassie?"

Annabelle shrieked and ran away, looking for somewhere to hide. There! That gate! She tore for it and slid through before running up the long staircase. She prayed that the door was not locked and that whoever lived there was not a green fish monster or zombies or any other sort of monster from horror movies.

Slamming into the door she tried the knob. It opened with a loud creak. Tearing in, she slammed the door behind her and closed her eyes. Her heart was pumping hard, and the adrenalin had not subsided. She was gasping for breath, so she lay there under the door hoping no one would come through for her head was right beside it.

Minutes passed, and she still lay there. No monsters had come knocking, so she thought she was safe inside the house. Sitting up slowly she suddenly noticed how different she looked. Her dress was wet and in tatters, though Annabelle cannot recall how she tore it without noticing. Her arms and legs were much paler than before, but that could also be the lighting. Looking around she noticed that she could see, though rather dimly, without any lights on. The moon was so bright it was almost like the sun, thought its light was shady and ghostly. She was in some sort of library, for the room was circular, and the wall was covered with shelves and shelves of books. Creeping to a stack of texts, she lay back on it using it for support.

Annabelle was tired and, now that she realized it, hungry. She wasn't scared anymore, and almost started to think that what had just happened had been figments of her imagination, thought she dared not to look out the window. Then she was overwhelmed in her self guilt again. She should never have gone off at Siana, never had gone and trashed Riks' room, never have come here…

But where is here? Where is she? Surely she would remember how she got here? But her mind was fogging up. She wanted so much to just close her eyes and drift off to dreamland, but she couldn't, she shouldn't. What if monsters came?

_There are no such things as monsters_, she told herself, and already her eyes were becoming too heavy to hold open. Tilting her head to rest it on a pile of stacked books, Annabelle fell asleep.


	9. Prepare

PREPARE FOR YOUR NIGHTMARE

Riks had ushered people out of her place an hour before the party was to finish. The last pair of disgruntled teenagers left, complaining how lame the party had been without any alcohol. Riks however had ignored them, kept up a happy face and yelled "Happy Halloween!" to passing trick-or-treaters and leaving guests. Only after handing out the last batch of candy to some 10 year olds did she hang up a sign saying 'Halloween is a foreign holiday and is not celebrated here', and unmasked her serious face.

"Let's get to work."

Siana and Riks got busy cleaning up the house and yard in a flash. The sinks sparkled and the chairs gleamed, as if no one had ever thrown up on it. She could still smell the strong lemon fragrant in the air as Riks climbed up the water tank to the roof and took down the stereo from the gutter pipe.

Siana was trying to clean up Riks room for her. She felt sorry for Riks because the party had ended a bit depressingly, but no matter, they would probably amuse themselves by scaring the little kids trick-or-treating. Sweeping the last bit of glass into a bag, Siana noticed a strange picture on the wall. A large pumpkin with eyes that looked so…_evil_. Standing up, she moved closer to it for a better view…

A hand grabbed her shoulder. Siana jumped back and screamed.

"Calm down man," whispered Riks. "Have you got any other clothes?"

"No. This is all I brought besides some CDs and cola," Siana said indicating to her cat costume.

"Okay, I'm going to pack some stuff and then we're going." Riks walked out the room.

"Going where?" Siana asked loudly.

Riks popped her head around the door and said "To get Annabelle of course" and then she walked off again. Her head came back around the corner.

"Uh, you better come with me Siana." She nodded towards the pumpkin. "You don't want to hang around that thing by yourself."

Siana obligingly followed Riks into the kitchen. Riks opened a packet and started filling up water balloons. "Here take some," she said.

"What's this for?"

"We might need them. Y'know, it _is_ Halloween night."

Siana did not believe the water bombs were meant for trick-or-treaters, but she still took one and put it in her bag. Riks picked up two and then marched into the garage. Finding her uncles battered baseball bat, she popped it in Siana's bag.

"Just in case."

Siana was becoming a bit nervous. First water balloons, then a baseball bat? In _her_ bag?

"Er, Ricks?"

"Yeh?" She replied selecting an ornamental Chinese umbrella by the door.

"Where _are_ we going anyway?"

Riks went back into her room and came out carrying some clothes.

"You wanna get changed?" she asked Siana.

"No I don't want to get changed," Siana snapped. "Riks if you don't tell me where we're going, then-then I'm going to… I'm going to walk out this door!" She took a step towards the front door to show Riks that she meant it.

Riks stared at her for a while, then said "Let me get changed and I'll show you where we're going." She walked into the bathroom.

Siana was left standing there feeling rather stupid. It was true; sometimes she just didn't trust Riks. She wasn't normal, that's for sure, but then again, that's why Siana liked her. Plus, Riks still seemed sort of…pure. She was good-hearted, but sometimes it came out wrong. Siana was still standing there thinking things over when Riks came out of the shower.

She was wearing a loose black shirt with khaki brown pants, and was stomping her feet into new converse shoes.

"Ready to go?"

Riks walked back into her room, and Siana followed. Riks stuffed her Halloween costume into her bag and pocketed the water balloons. Siana had noticed the pumpkin again. It still gave off bad vibes, but it drew Siana towards it. She was nervous, but still moved closer, and closer. If she reached out she could touch it. Should she?

Siana felt Riks behind her. "What is this Riks?" she whispered. Riks didn't reply, but Siana didn't care. She didn't care about anything. Her eyes fluttered, and then became blank, hypnotized by the pumpkin.

"See you on the other side Siana." She felt Riks shove her forward. Hard.

"Hey!" she cried out in surprise, snapping out of her daze. But she was already falling. Shielding her face with her hands, Siana braced herself, but felt nothing. Suddenly she was falling into darkness, Riks words echoing around her as she fell into the void.

Boy did Riks feel bad. She hadn't had meant to push her _that _hard. She hoped that she did not land on a pike on top of a building. She also hoped that Annabelle had not died of fright. Halloween Town _is_ pretty scary when you're alone. She could hear the ghastly music in her ears and snapped "Alright! Alright! I'm going." But she stood there listening to it.

_I am the who when you call 'who's there?'_

_I am the wind blowing through your hair_…

She closed her eyes, took a deep breathe and walked at the pumpkin …bang!

"OW!" Riks rubbed her nose. She had run into the wall! The sound of wild laughter was all around her.

"Shut up! That's not funny!" She carefully touched the pumpkin. Her hand became hazy and went through the wall.

"Oh, _now_ you work," she said grumpily as she fell into the darkness. The laughter died away, and the world soon forgot there was ever a Riks.

I thought the story might have become a bit too dramatic and serious, so I tried to lighten things up. I also drank a lot of milo. Mwahaha o


	10. Midnight Stroll

MIDNIGHT STROLL

In Halloween Town, another stranger had appeared. A girl lay on the ground stirring. She was gradually coming to, her eyes fluttering, unfocused. Trying to sit up, she used her hands for support. However, her right hand would not move. In an upright position, she looked around her, eyes focusing, and realized that she was no longer where she was before.

Valary stared in wonder. Why was she in a graveyard? What time is it? Mum's going to kill her! Trying to sit cross-legged, she found that she couldn't for her skirt was so narrow that it hindered her. Sitting with her legs to the side, she tried to make sense of her current situation. She had been at home getting ready…for what? She was going somewhere…where?!

Thinking that she had amnesia, she looked around again for clues to why she was there. Halloween! She screamed in her head. Riks' Halloween/birthday party! She had dressed and had her mum drop her off at Riks'. She helped decorate and asked Spencer to strap the radio to the gutter for a better frequency. Then…

Siana! Annabelle! Everything came back to her: her friends fighting, going after Annabelle, the pumpkin. The pumpkin! Suddenly she was scared. The pumpkin brought her here. _No wait_, she thought to herself. _That's crazy_. But after thinking about it for a minute she found it was the only explanation. She looked around nervously.

The ground felt cold, and was a weird texture. It was not dirt or cement. The closest thing it felt like was plastic. Graves were scattered around: a couple of large monuments and shrines, but mostly small bare gravestones. Trying to stand again, her legs shivered violently and she reached for the closest tomb. Her arm caught it, and she straightened herself slowly. Her right hand wasn't reacting. Thinking it was numb she held her arm up to her face.

Valary started. Her mouth dropped and she felt her lunch coming up. Trying not to be sick, she turned her arm over, and over. There was her shoulder, her elbow, then…nothing. She had no wrist, no hand, no fingers. Not on her right arm anyway. Quickly checking her other arm she found all the bits that her right arm was missing.

There was no blood or scab. No marks to indicate it had been cut off. It didn't hurt.

From the elbow down there was just nothing there, like it just detached. She had the craziest idea that it had only fallen off, and looked around her, but found nothing. She did notice that she was at the bottom of a hill, a very strange shaped hill indeed; for it had a narrow curve as its ledge. Behind it was the moon. It was so big that Valary doubted it was real, but it must've been for it gave off a dim light. Slowly making her way up the hill (a skirt that is narrow at the knees is not fun to walk in) she noticed the tall metal fence with an even taller gate that surrounded the area. Reaching the top she gasped.

Past the fence were rolling hills of the same plastic-rake texture. A house so large that it could almost be a mansion was seen between hills, with what looked like pipes and hanging things poking out and around it. Behind her past the gate could be seen something that was squirting water up (a fountain?) surrounded by tall derelict buildings. Two buildings stood out above the rest. They weren't as neglected, but still matched the scene. They seemed more superior to the other buildings. And the moon! Oh, the moon was ginormous! (Is that even a word?) So round and perfect, it shone on the hill and tombs, creating creeping shadows.

Valary's hands (or should it be hand?) twitched. The view was so inspiring. She wished that she could have brought along a sketchbook or at least some paper to draw the scene. Hobbling down the hill she saw something lying on a grave closest to her. Moving towards it, she realized with shock what it was. There, resting on the tombstone was her hand.

She poked it. It moved. She gasped in fright, slightly jumping back. She poked it again. She felt a strange feeling below her elbow where her hand would normally have been. _She could feel herself touching her hand_. For some reason it did not come as much as a shock, but was still a bit unnerving. If she could feel it still, maybe she could move it?

Thinking of moving her hand was easy; the hard part was _getting_ it to move. She tried clenching, but she kept clenching the wrong hand. She became impatient and waved her working hand around in frustration.

It moved. Ever so slightly. But Valary did not notice, for she had heard voices in front of her. Behind the gate she could see movement, and could hear people talking. Looking around quickly she spotted a rather large shrine and darted for it before tripping over her own feet in her skirt. Cursing, she army-crawled towards the shrine before remembering she had left her hand behind. Looking over her shoulder she heard the tall gate creep open and could hear the people walking, their voices a bit louder.

'Woof!'

_Great. They have a dog_. If she got up they would spot her, but she couldn't just leave her arm behind. What would you do if you found an arm lying on a grave?!

Valary quickly wriggled her way behind the shrine and waited silently.

"Jack, something isn't right!" Sally exclaimed. "Halloween decorations are missing, things are been taken! My dress is gone!"

"Sally, I don't think Oogie's boys would have taken your _dress_," Jack laughed. "I mean, Shock would have to wait a couple of more years before she'd fit-"

"I don't think Oogie's boys are behind this," Sally cut in. "This is…something else."

Jack looked at Sally and carefully took her hand in his.

"Is it another premonition?" he asked seriously.

"I…I don't know," Sally said shaking her head. Suddenly she blushed. "This must sound stupid. Me, having premonitions?" She tried to laugh it off.

Jack squeezed her hand lightly and said, "It's not stupid. Remember when I tried to take over Christmas? I didn't listen to you then, and we all saw what happened."

They both laughed at the memory and kept walking. They had now reached the cemetery where Jack opened the gate for Sally.

"Thank you kind sir," giggled Sally as she walked past.

"Anything for a lovely lady," Jack replied with a grin. As they both walked together Zero appeared by Jack's side, barking happily.

"Why hello Zero," Jack said. "You're looking bright."

Zero kept barking at Jack, drifting around him.

"Ah, you want to play? Alright then." Jack reached into his jacket and pulled out a rib. "Fetch Zero!"

Something landed in front of Valary with a significant THUD. Valary squinted at it before realizing it was a bone. _This place is weird…_ She was becoming less and less surprised when strange things happened. Valary was in a graveyard, somewhere else in the world without a right hand. It couldn't get any weirder.

She heard a dog barking. It got closer and closer. _What if they find me?_ She thought. _Maybe they're lost themselves, like I am…_

Valary risked a peek around the shrine. She glimpsed three…no, two people. One was very tall and thin. The other person was a woman with long hair that shone red in the ghostly light. She couldn't see the dog, but she did see her hand. It still lay on the grave, not far from her. One thing's for sure, she had to get it before the people spotted it.

She tried to call her hand. "Come on hand! Come on!" It didn't budge. She imagined herself as the hand and called. This time it twitched. _Ah_, she thought. _That's how it's done._ It was like trying to play two video games at once, trying to drink with your mouth and breathe normally with your nose, trying to pat your head and rub your tummy. It was hard. Her hand had hardly moved, and the people were heading for the hill. If they reached the top they would spot her quite easily…

"Come on! Hurry up!" she urged her hand. It stopped and made a rude sign at her. It dropped to the ground with a loud THUD. Adrenalin pumped through her veins. There was no way no one _couldn't_ have heard that…

Suddenly something white appeared in front of Valary. It was a ghost…of a dog. With a pumpkin on its nose. That glowed. _That _is weird.

"Zero! I need my bone back!"


	11. Oogie's Lair

OOGIE'S LAIR

Riks landed on something coarse and squishy. She bounced off it onto hard dirt, and lay still for a while.

Oogie Boogie woke up abruptly, feeling his stomach where Riks had landed seconds before.

Riks groaned and quickly got up. Trying to steady herself, she looked around and realized with a shock where she was. She was in Oogie's Lair. The walls were dark, and a weak light shone through a rather tiny hole in the high ceiling. Oogie Boogie noticed her.

"Well, well, well. What have we here?" He crowed moving towards her. "Come here shadow; let me see your face!"

He grabbed a lever and pulled it. The room was lit by bright lights all around, and for a moment Riks was blinded. She saw Oogie running at her.

Riks turned and ran, grabbing her umbrella out of her backpack. She reached the boiler, and darted around it. Oogie tried moving to one side, but Riks moved to the other. He chased her around it and leapt for her feet. But Riks was quick. Jumping out of reach, she dodged his grabbing hands and sprinted away from him. Spotting a large green door, she headed towards it, her heart pumping wildly. But out of the shadows on the wall came bugs and bats, their high pitched voices filling her ears.

Swatting them away with her umbrella, she looked around aimlessly, trying to find some way of escape. There! She ran to the pipe that Oogie's boys threw food down for their master. She climbed the cages and boxes piled under it and just gripped the edge of the pipe when a sudden drag on her leg made her lose her grasp. She cried out as Oogie pulled her leg, laughing manically. Riks tried to kick him, but he only grabbed her other leg as well. Remembering the bulge in her pocket, she quickly withdrew a water balloon and threw it straight at his face.

"Aagh!" Oogie Boogie yelled in pain as the chilli sauce that she had secretly added seeped into his empty eyes. Out of shock he let go, and Riks started to scramble into the pipe. But she was suddenly attack by the bats, their claws scratching into her skin and clothes. They kept coming as she swung her umbrella at them. Over the scream of bats Riks could hear distant voices and screeching noises coming down from the pipe.

Something rough seized Riks' leg- Oogie had got her again. The bats still clawed at her head, and now stronger than before, Oogie Boogie dragged her down towards him.

"Come here!" He barked and he pulled on her leg.

Riks could hear movement in the pipe. Something was coming down, and Riks was at the end. She swung her umbrella at the bats and kicked Oogie. The thing was coming closer. She could hear it grinding on the sides of the pipe, the noise making her ears hurt. It was gaining speed. Any second now something was going to pop down the pipe and smash in Riks' head. She was now clinging by fingers, Oogie still laughing at Riks' feeble attempt to escape. Riks could hold on no longer.

She let go...

------

a bit short. Thankx for the reviews everyone! valary, riks, siana lee and annabelle are mine! mwahahaha


	12. The Graveyard

THE GRAVEYARD

Zero kept barking and barking. It was really starting to irritate Jack. He sighed. _Of all the nights he wanted to play, it had to be tonight_, he thought.

"I'm sorry Sally." He apologized. "Alright Zero, I'm coming."

Sally turned towards him and smiled, giving his hand a small squeeze, and said "It's alright Jack. It's only Zero."

Hand in hand they wandered towards the glow of Zero's nose.

"Shoo! Go!" Valary was starting to panic. She could hear the people getting closer, and the dog would not shut _up_!

"Zero? What's wrong?"

Valary gasped. The people were now in front of her, but now they clearly were not just people. They were _dead_ people. The man was tall and so thin! And he was...a skeleton? He noticed Valary with his … eye sockets? For where there should be two huge round eyes were just gaping holes staring out at her.

"Oh hello! Are you alright? Zero be quite."

She must have looked quite helpless, cowering from a ghost dog and her right arm missing its hand.

"Here, let me help you." He held out a long bony hand to her. In a daze, Valary accepted his hand, and got up slowly so as not to fall and make a fool of herself in front of him. He looked handsome…in a horrible kind of way.

"Jack?"

Valary turned and saw the woman…who also looked dead. Stitches ran all around her body, and she wore a nightgown that had been patched up with different sorts of material. It reminded Valary of Riks' dress that she had worn for the party…

"Oh hello," she said a bit startled. "Are you okay?"

"Um," Valary couldn't believe what she was seeing. "Uh, I'm lost," she said quite lamely.

"Lost?" Jack said incredulously. "How can you get lost around here?" he waved his long arms around him. "Unless…" His black holes for eyes narrowed at her. He thought of something that he hasn't thought of for a long time. "Are you…from somewhere else?"

Valary was about to answer when Sally cut in, "Oh, your arm. I think this is yours." She held up Valary's hand. Valary stood staring at it. It gave her a small wave.

"Um, thanks," She said as the woman handed it to her (hahaha, that was a lame pun Oo). Valary attached her hand. She could move it, just like she could move her other hand. _Now _that_ is weird_.

"Thank you," Valary repeated. She didn't feel threatened by these…people. On the contrary, they were really friendly, not exactly what she expected from what looked like a pair of nightmare prom dates.

"Ah," the skeleton spoke suddenly. "Where are my manners? I'm Jack Skellington, and this is Sally." He said wrapping an arm around her waist.

"I'm Valary. Valary Jacqueline." She shook hands with Jack. As she shook hands with Sally her hand came off again.

"Whoops! Sorry," She took her hand back and tried to reattach it but it wouldn't stay in place. In the end her hand crept up her arm onto her shoulder, startling Valary. It was like it had a mind of its own!

"You really aren't from around here, are you?" Sally said laughing. "Come back with us. I'll get your arm back on."

"If-if it doesn't trouble you," Valary said quickly.

"Trouble? Not at all!" Jack reassured. "You can tell us about where you come from."

They started to go when Valary called "Wait! You're forgetting something Jack."

"Huh?" He turned as Valary handed him his bone. "Ah, thank you." He popped it back inside him and announced "Well, off to my house then!" And altogether they walked out the graveyard, Jack and Sally close together and Valary wandering behind, wondering what was happening with the party. She wasn't aware of the person hiding behind a gravestone watching her.

"Wait 'til Oogie hears about this!" cackled Shock as she crept away unnoticed.

--------

yawn I am blinded be thee oh bright light of thy compooter screen

whack

Ouch. Needed that. If any speeling/grammatical errors seen, please report (not including this little bit)

Thanks everyone for your comments.


	13. Daring Flight

DARING FLIGHT

"Aaah!"

"AARGH!"

THUMP. Oogie hit the ground hard, Riks landing on top of him. Riks was now looking into the boogie man's narrow hollow eyes. She heard something pop out of the pipe, and she quickly got out of the way.

BANG.

"AARGH!" the cage that contained a little grasshopper (a Halloween-ish grasshopper to be precise) had hit Oogie right in the head.

Riks, thankful for the distraction, dashed up to the pipe. The bats started for her again, but this time she was determined. She smashed the bats away with her umbrella, and chucked her last water bomb at Oogie Boogie. He cried out in alarm as Riks started moving into the pipe, laughing.

The walls were cold, and she kept scraping her hands on bits of hard metal that poked out. It was dark, and Riks couldn't even see in front of her, and she prayed silently that no more cages would be coming down while she was in there. Suddenly she came to a fork where the pipe split into two. One sloped upwards while the other kept going straight. Riks took the left one which went straight.

She was getting tired, her back sore from bending for so long, and her legs starting to cramp. She walked slower. Suddenly the pipe turned and she was falling down the sloping sides. She could see the end of the pipe coming. Trying to stop herself from moving any farther, she clawed at the sides, trying to grab onto something. She slowed down a little, but was still moving towards the end. Riks pressed her feet against the sides, scraping her knees where her boots didn't cover her. The pipe creaked under her weight as she came closer and closer to the fading light. She shoved all her body against the sides, and prayed that she did not die slowly in pain, but quickly without anguish.

Riks comes to a stop. She was no longer moving or falling, just stopped. Slowly she opened an eye, then two. She could see rolling hills and the town far ahead. Below she saw only the deep menacing black void. Riks had miraculously stopped right at the edge of the pipe, and not a moment too soon, for if she had gone any further she wouldn't be there thinking all sorts of thoughts, like what was the last thing she said to her friends, or hoping that her life had not been a waste.

Crying out in triumph she laughed, glad that she was still alive, and carefully popped her head out of the pipe. To the right she could see pipes and hanging cages that connected to Oogie's mansion, and the bridge. She had to get to the bridge, for Oogie's mansion was built away from nearby hills, a gorge surrounding it. Grabbing onto the top of the pipe, she hauled herself out and clung onto it.

Riks shirt, pants and Converse shoes were gone, replaced by a long flowing cloak; red on the inside, black on the outside. Underneath she wore a greenish grey tinged dress with knee-high boots. It was like a costume that she changed into whenever she came to Halloween. No matter what she would be wearing before, she would always be dressed the same when she came to Halloween.

Riks noticed that the closest hanging cage to her was also the closest to the bridge. She could easily make it from the pipe to the cage, but from the cage to the bridge?

She jumped at the cage, her hands grabbing the criss-crossed bars. She dangled for a moment before pulling herself up, her muscles slightly flexing. The cage swayed dangerously, making it tilt under her weight. Riks managed to the top, and hauled herself up onto the wooden bit that connected it to the mansion. She was not far from the bridge, and above it too. The distance was a bit farther than she had expected, and Riks started to worry.

She couldn't help noticing the void below her, waiting to engulf her body as she fell. She shut her eyes and started to say encouraging things to herself.

"This is Halloween," she whispered. "No one dies here." She inched her way to the very edge of the plank, closest to the bridge.

"It's not that far, I can make it." Her hand was sweating, clinging to her umbrella; her bag seemed to drag on her back.

"No one's going to miss me if I die." She crouched, her heart pumping, arms shaking.

She leaped.

She was falling. The void would swallow her up whole…and then…

She was flying. The feeling made her feel free. So free…

Her eyes shot open. The darkness was still below her, and the bridge was coming closer. _Huh_? She slowly hovered over the bridge, and Riks felt her hand still grasping something. Her umbrella was open, but she didn't remember…

She was flying! Well, gliding really, but still…

Riks laughed, gazing at her umbrella.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" Her feet lightly touched the unsteady bridge, and with that she put away her prized possession and ran, ran away from the mansion and bridge, towards the towering gate. For on the other side of that gate lay the sleeping town of Halloween.


	14. Strange Encounters

wow thanx everyone for reviews. Sorry it has been soooo long, my internet did something funny and the computer exploded so I traded it for bubblegum and-

maybe we should get on with the story...

--------

STRANGE ENCOUNTERS

Siana stirred. Someone was poking her in the back. She grumbled and muttered "I'm awake mum."

"What is it?"

"That's the second one I've seen!"

"It isn't very scary."

Siana's head throbbed, and as she sat up she tried to make out who the two voices belonged to in the dim light. Her eyes slowly adjusting, she made out two shapes; a short figure with funny tentacles on its head, and a rather tall person. Siana could only make out their silhouettes. She stood up slowly and quickly did a retake of the two figures in alarm.

The short being looked like a cross between a bird (most likely a chicken) and a demon; while the rangy thing beside it seemed to have come out of an old horror movie featuring the fish monster that ate people, for that is exactly what it looked like: a fish monster.

Siana stared at the creatures. They stared back. The fish monster spoke, which surprised Siana, even though she heard it speak earlier. She seemed angry (yes Siana decided it was female).

"How dare you! First you're splashing around in my water disturbing me, and then you're knocking around his bins making a ruckus? You're nearly as bad as those _infidels_ of Oogie's!" Her voice was deep and harsh. She was _very_ angry.

Siana was confused. She knew that she should be afraid of the pair, but she wasn't. She seemed as if in a dream, going with the flow.

"Er…where am I?"

"What?" said the harlequin demon in surprise. "You don't know?" Siana thought his voice was quite strange- not squeaky or high, just…strange.

"I am not going to waste my time teaching children about Halloween. Humph!" The fish woman stalked off, and a distant splash was heard.

"What…happened?" Siana asked, puzzled.

"You knocked over my bin and woke me up," the demon replied. He seemed to be inspecting her, looking up and down.

"You _are_ a strange one...Hmm," something seemed to bother him. "You're…not from around here?" he asked almost nervously.

"No! No I'm not," Siana said shaking her head. "I-I was at my friends house and- RIKS! She brought me here and- oh! Why me?" Her eyes watered, and she buried her head in her hands. The reality had suddenly hit her hard- what if she never got back? What if she was stuck here forever?

The demon was intrigued. He was not used to humans- never met one, or dealt with one for that matter.

"Oh dear. It-it's alright." He reached out and touched her arm. Siana sobbed harder, her shoulders shaking.

"Let's go to Jack. Yes, Jack will know what to do." Firmly, the demon took her arm and led her down the road.

The moon shone a ghostly shine, lighting their path so Siana didn't have to squint to make out objects. A fountain, derelict buildings, a guillotine…

Wiping tears away with her other hand she asked "Who's Jack?"

"The pumpkin king," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Oh."

Together they walked down the road, soon disappearing into the shadows of buildings.

-------

no, no romance for those two! Or maybe there is....heheh


	15. Nightmare's Dream

MY NIGHTMARE'S DREAM

Waking up, Annabelle felt her damp clothes clinging to her, making her skin shiver. She heard a rumble and felt her stomach groan for food. Gazing around, she remembered the house that she was in, and started crying softly. It was lonely for her, to be in a place where no one would find her. No monsters had come knocking at least, and the owner of the house seemed to be out.

Standing up she searched for a switch. The house lit up, a faint glow coming from the bulb that was high above. In the centre of the room was a staircase that wound around to another room upstairs with far apart steps and thin black rails. She inspected the shelves of books, finding horror novels, scientific texts and- what in the world? - a couple of rows of Christmas books. Christmas carols, Christmas stories, how to make stars for Christmas. How ironic, she thought.

About to head for the staircase to search for a towel, Annabelle spotted something that looked out of place in the room. Something bright pink was on one of the shelves. Picking it up, Annabelle found it was a notebook with stripes drawn all over it. She wasn't sure how, but she knew that it didn't belong there. Opening she was amazed by what was written.

In small messy writing Annabelle read last weeks homework that was given:

Science- pg 210 (all questions), English assignment due Tuesday, Spelling words: onomatopoeia, nonchalant, rhetorical.

Whoever owns this book must come to my school, Annabelle thought. My school, my class…my friend?

She flicked through it, looking for clues to whoever owns the book. There were rantings and ramblings about the canteen food and how much the camp this year is costing, songs from the radio, notes from class, list of food, party list…

Annabelle read the names. Valary, Siana, Spencer, Annabelle, Tom... There was only one party Annabelle was invited to, and that was Riks'. This is Riks' book? But how-

Of course! First she was in Riks' room, and now she's here. Obviously Riks must have come here as well. And she left her book...

Flicking through the pages; she found something that intrigued her. Greatly.

_Take me to freedom_

_Give me wings to soar away_

_To my nightmare's dream_

To freedom? What does she mean? '_To my nightmare's dream'_…does she mean...this place? Is this her idea of a ...a what? Heaven? Hell? Why this of all places? She must be…_mad_.

Still pondering over the book, Annabelle didn't notice the shadows creeping behind the door. It eased open slowly, a head peering in. Upon seeing Annabelle's back to him, he surreptitiously crept up behind her, years of practice in his favour. Raising a bony hand, he tapped her on the shoulder then quickly darted around her. Annabelle whirled around, but found nothing but the door open. He stifled a laugh and tapped her on the shoulder again, this time letting her turn and see him.

Sally and Valary had just peeked into the house when Annabelle let out an almighty scream that echoed around in the darkness. The sound missed going through their ears and went straight to their heads, making anyone that heard her go dizzy with agitation and confusion.

Annabelle ran for the door when Jack doubled over, holding his head, but the door was blocked by two other shadows.

"Annabelle?"

She shrieked again and backed up, right into Jack who caught her just as she passed out.

-------

oh, such a dream. to be caught in the arms of jack as you pass out.... hahaha lol that haiku is soooo mine so nyeh! and so are Annabelle, Siana Lee, Valary and Riks


	16. United

UNITED

"Aargh!" Siana groaned as she clutched her head in pain. "What _was_ that?"

"That must hurt with ears like yours," remarked the demon.

"Wha-?" She felt around her head for her ears and found them not on the side where they normally were, but on top of her head, triangular shaped with thick fur covering them. Shaking her head with disbelief, she said "Come on!" and rushed in the direction of the sound.

Catching up the demon cried "Why are we running?"

"Someone might be in trouble!"

"So?"

"_So_? They might need our help! Y'know, life or death situation?"

They were now moving down a long street, and at the end was what looked like a tall house crossed with a lookout of some sort. The lights were on.

The demon laughed. "No one dies around here."

Siana stared at him as they reached the house and climbed the long hard steps to the door. It was open, and as the panting demon came up behind her she peered in, not wanting to look like a fool if nothing was wrong. But there was something wrong, for in front of her a tall bony man knelt with his back to them.

"Jack?" the demon said cautiously.

He turned, and Siana saw that he was not a man, but a skeleton in a suit that would have made Riks scream with glee. He wasn't scary; well, not compared to the outraged fish woman. More sort of…creepy. He stood up to his full height (which was very, very high) and Siana saw what he had been crouched over. Behind him lying on the ground, with ghoulish make up and a ghostly dress was none other than-

"Annabelle!"

Siana ran to her friend's side, shaking her lightly. "What's wrong? Is she-"

"She's fine," replied the skeleton named Jack. "Took quite a scare. Partly my fault," he said apologetically.

Siana's glared at him, as he gently picked up Annabelle.

"She needs a warm bed and rest," he said quietly and went up the stairs to the room above.

"Siana?"

Turning she saw cropped blood-red hair, a corset made of bandages and black skirt.

"Valary!" She screamed, jumping up and grabbing her with a tight hug. Valary just stood there, shocked but happy until Siana let her go.

"What're you doing here? What happened? Where's Riks?" she badgered.

"Riks? She's here?"

"Yeh, she's the one that brought me here! Ooh, I am so going to kill her the next time I- where's your hand?" She pointed at Valary's right arm. Valary grined at Siana's sudden change of subjects.

"Uh, over there."

Siana looked at the stack of books on which lay Valary's rather dismal hand. However at its sudden attention it sat up (huh?) and waved before lying still again. She stared for a moment then grinned, looking at Valary.

"Hey that's cool! How'd you do that?" She wandered over to it.

"I didn't do anything. It's like it's alive."

"Yeh yeh," said Siana obviously not believing her. "where's the remote for it?"

"Uh, Siana-"

But Siana had picked it up and was now shaking hands with it.

"That is so cool!" She giggled. "How do you do?" She made big mock shakes, then tried to put it down.

"Hey, it's stuck."

"Here." Someone gently took the hand. Siana glimpsed long auburn hair and large eyes before the person turned and started stitching the hand onto Valary. Siana watched, wincing every time the woman stuck the needle into Valary's arm, but she didn't scream in pain. In fact she was giggling saying how much it tickled as the woman knotted off the thread and popped it away into a pocket in her nightdress.

"Siana this is Sally, Sally- Siana." They shook hands as Valary introduced them.

Valary tested her hand, contracting and relaxing her grip.

"Wow, thanks!"

"You're welcome," she beamed.

"Wait," Siana said slowly. "That was…for real?"

At that moment Jack walked lightly down the stairs and came in front of Siana and Valary.

"I think," he said slowly looking at them, "we need to explain ourselves."

------------

Siana is based on my friend who is also called Siana. She is very fun to be around with. Booya!


	17. Schemings

SCHEMINGS

"So," Jack said slowly. "You're from the world where holidays come to them, and you're here because of your friend?"

"Yep," said Siana.

"We don't know how to get back," Valary added.

"Well we can help you there. I know a person who can get you back easily, though you might have to wait a couple of months for Christmas."

Both Valary and Siana gave Jack quizzical looks, but he was deep in thought, his head resting on his hand. Sally took a sip of her tea before saying, "Maybe we should find your friend first."

"Good idea." Jack stood up and yawned. "No doubt she would like to find you. I'll take a look around town, but in the meantime both of you rest up, you look tired."

Siana yawned widely showing a row of sharp yellow teeth. She had noticed the fur on the sides of her face and arms, and didn't like it one bit. Her costume had come to life, just as Valary's had done, so that she really was a cat-woman-creature and Valary really was a mummy (and a very attractive one at that), and Annabelle was really a princess…of sorts. Curling up into a ball on the floor she lay there trying to sleep.

Valary stayed in her seat as Sally closed the door behind her, for her and Jack were going to search the town for Riks. It had been quite a night, coming to this place now known as Halloween Town, being a mummy…_Hahaha, I'm a mummy_.

"So, you're the Reaper man himself?"

The Grim Reaper nodded, still staring down into the empty well. The scythe he held glowed blue as Riks stood next to him peering curiously into the well. After a few moments she finally asked "Are you waiting for something?"

He nodded again and held the scythe up. Up through the well a white apparition appeared. It was in the shape of a young man with a long nose and small dark eyes. Rope hung around his reddened neck. Riks had a vague idea of how he died.

The Grim Reaper swung the scythe and cut the spirit in half. The man cried out in alarm, or he would have if he had a throat to cry out from, before he slowly faded to a small misty ball. It hovered for a moment then darted away out of sight.

"Where's it going?"

The Reaper turned and pointed to the graveyard gates as the glowing ball went through.

"Why did you kill- I mean cut it?"

YOU ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS.

"Just curious."

YOU ARE NEW?

"Yes."

He seemed hesitant to talk, maybe because his voice was strange. Riks didn't _hear_ him say anything; she just knew what he said. The words seemed to pop into her mind.

IF I DID NOT SEVER HIM FROM HIS ATTACHMENT, HE WOULD HAVE DRIFTED BETWEEN WORLDS.

"…like- a ghost?"

NO, NOT LIKE GHOSTS.

They stood there in silence, waiting for the other to talk.

"I don't understand." Riks said breaking the silence.

YOU ARE YOUNG.

He turned and looked at her for the first time. His head moved up and down as he inspected her.

TOO YOUNG.

And with that he walked off, disappearing down an alley.

Riks raised an eyebrow at him and shook her head. She sat on the well, her feet dangling over the edge, wondering what to do. She knew she should look for Siana and Annabelle, but where to start?

"Hmmm."

She stood up and suddenly heard vioces. Darting around the well she crept behind a low wall and squatted on her hands and knees. Hiding in the shadows, Riks peered around the corner.

She saw a large purple hat pop into view. Squinting, she could just make out the forms of Lock and Shock, though Barrel was hard to spot in the gloom. The three were arguing- well Lock and Shock were, Barrel usually stays out of it.

"But what do we care?" Lock exclaimed.

"Oogie Boogie would care that's who!" Shock screeched back.

"I don't see a point."

"Think about that other world! No one in Halloween has ever been _there_."

"Except for Jack."

"Exactly!" Shock said excitedly. "Remember how much _trouble_ he made?"

"Yeah you're right!" Barrel said.

"And, if we go there-"

"-we can have as much fun as we like!"

"No Oogie Boogie to boss _us_ around."

"No Pumpkin Head to ruin it!"

"Yeah!" They all cheered.

"Wait!" Lock said breaking the merriment. He paced around the two.

"How do we get there?"

"Well," Shock said slyly. "We find the people that came here-"

"-and ask them to take us back?" guessed Barrel.

"No!" Both Lock and Shock screamed.

"We'll take them to Oogie Boogie-"

"-find out how they got here-"

"-and then we're out of Halloween Town!"

"Yeah!" Both Lock and Shock cheered this time, and hurried off down the street, leaving Barrel behind wondering.

"But I don't want to leave Halloween Town…" He ran off after his partners in crime.

Creeping out from the shadows, Riks stared after them. She had to find Annabelle and Siana. Now.

With the grim reaper, he is based on Terry Pratchet's Death character, so I don't own him. Wahh….


	18. Escape

ESCAPE

Annabelle woke up. Her head was sore and her throat ached, and she was lying in a long bed. As she sat up she remembered seeing the skeleton, and that mummy…

Voices drifted through the stairwell from downstairs, and Annabelle knew that they were down there, celebrating, waiting for her…

Annabelle was dry thanks to the small fireplace in the corner of the room. She stared into the flames thinking hard.

"Well, it's now or never," she muttered to herself. She got out of bed and felt a draft of wind come in through a large elaborately designed window. Her heart thumping with anticipation she crossed the room and stuck her head out before her stomach dropped. She was over three storeys high! Jumping out was not an option. There were no bushes below to break her fall, no tree to land into.

Something clanged beside her and made her jump, then sighing she realized it was just a hanging rope banging the gutter. The light bulb in her head suddenly switched on, and she leant out and grabbed it. It was rough, but strong. Swinging her legs out the window she sat on the ledge. The ground seemed very far away. Down. Down. _Maybe this isn't a good idea_, she thought.

_What's wrong, are you scared?_

_No…_

_Then jump._

_There's a safer way._

_Down the stairs?_ The voice at the back of her head leered. _To the monsters and ghou/s? You may as well jump then…_

And she did. And as she fell down to the ground, her scream filling the night air, she thought of her family and friends and her cat that she forgot to feed and the boy that she liked and-

CHING. The rope caught and Annabelle was hanging not even a foot from the ground. As she waited for her heart to catch up with her and the world to stop spinning, she wondered, and only a part of her wondered this; would she ever do anything like that again?

"I did it!" she cheered catching herself by surprise. She danced around for a bit, happy for the first time since she had gotten to where she was now. Hearing movement from the room that she had just jumped out from (yes, she, Annabelle Daniell, jumped from a window!) Annabelle ran down the street which was, thank goodness, empty. Upon seeing the high gate with tall spear-like bars and words shaped into them, she knew it would take her out of the place. As she ran through the gate's bars, the gatekeeper stuck his head out to watch the disappearing figure…disappear.

Siana was peering out through the window as Valary made her way up the stairs.

_It is not good_, Valary thought to herself, _to wear narrow skirts in situations where you need to run_.

"Where is she?" Valary panted.

Siana just pointed out the window. Valary reached her and followed her finger. Directly below them lay a pile of rope.

"Shit."

-------

Whoa, that was like, my first swear word. Oo heh he. Annabelle Daniell, made from the name Annabelle and surname Daniell (yes thaz how its spelt, i like adding extra letters okay?!) Lol, hope ur enjoying this.


	19. Hurry!

HURRY!

Riks raced past the fountain down a bumpy road. The scream was still echoing in her ears making her head ache, but she raced on. If something happened to them…her friends were in trouble, that's all that mattered.

Suddenly she was flying and Riks landed hard on the cold ground. Pain jolted through her leg, and she lay still, groaning. She turned to see that she had tripped over a person. He groaned as he stood, creaking his back this way and that. His groan was like a deep animal's groan, and it made the hairs on the back of Riks head stand on end.

"Sorry," Riks muttered to him, wincing as she got up. She staggered and saw in front of her an ominous looking gate; though most things around Halloween were ominous it seemed even more ominous than ominous; that led to a queer looking house. It had an extension of about two storeys to form a sort of lookout. Dim light penetrated the darkness, and Riks limped to the gate and up the many stairs. Reaching the door she leaned against it, her ear pressed into the hard wood. Upon hearing no one, she barged into the house and saw the stairs. Riks hastened up, ignoring her leg that throbbed with every step that she took.

"Annabelle!" She called. But she did not see Annabelle. Two people that were peering out a window jumped at hearing Riks. She noticed that the one on the left had cropped red hair that was so bright it looked like blood. Riks instantly recognized her, but…how could she be there?

"Valary?"

"Riks!"

---------

one of my shortest yet! that was just for drama.


	20. The Wish

THE WISH

Annabelle glimpsed two- no three kids and a bathtub before a bag was thrown over her, and she was being dragged and then thrown into something hard. They started moving and Annabelle could only think that they had shoved her into the bathtub and were somehow traversing to some place. She didn't understand how the bath could be moving, but then again she was in hell, or somewhere close to it, and the bath was probably a human-eating monster.

Lollipops and sticky sweets stuck to her arms and legs as she tumbled around in the bag. She yelled and screamed, trying to kick out a hole or something, but her kidnappers screamed back, their voices shrill and loud, drowning out hers. She stayed quiet in defeat, and tried to get as comfortable as she could, wondering what was going to happen to her now...

"Finally she shut up," Shock said relieved.

"That hurt my ears," winced Barrel.

Lock was quiet but looked back at the tub behind him. He remembered her face, so pale and scared, startling blue eyes that had pierced him. She was so beautiful...

"She what?!" Riks said in disbelief. Her eyes were wide with shock as Valary repeated "Out the window Riks, she jumped out the window."

"Where were you guys? You let her jump out?!"

"Hey, where were _you_? I landed on a pile of rubbish bins and there was a demon and this fish monster- eww I didn't like her."

"I was stuck with the boogie man! I nearly got eaten!"

"And I landed on a hill and my arm broke off but Sally fixed it up," Valary said quietly making Riks and Siana stop bickering.

"Can we talk about this later 'cos we need to find our friend."

The two were quiet with embarrassment and shame. Valary had ways of making people stop and think without yelling; though sometimes it might be better for her to yell because it makes them feel so bad when she says it quietly.

They stood in silence not knowing what to do. Riks opened her mouth as if to say something but when Siana looked at her she avoided her gaze and stared into the dim flames.

"Well," Siana said to break the silence. "What do we do now?"

Riks glanced out the window to see the sky becoming lighter. The darkness slowly mixed with the orange rays of light, and as the stars one by one disappeared and night faded into morning Riks remembered a very important factor in Halloween.

"One day," she muttered.

"What?"

"One day." Riks looked up to see Valary and Siana watching her closely. "One more day until Halloween."

Siana was fuming. "That's all you can think about isn't it?" she found herself yelling. "Halloween this, Halloween that. Even your birthday is 3 days before Halloween!"

"Wait," Valary said. She saw a connection. The pumpkin picture on the wall, a world of dead people and monsters, Halloween only a day away…"Riks, what happens on Halloween night?"

Riks looked at Valary hard, their eyes meeting, and Valary understood. Riks and Valary had a special connection, almost like twins. They had only known met in year 9, but now a year later it seems as if they had always known each other. Valary knew Riks was going to say something that would make matters worse. And she did.

"Do you remember when I said to you that my…my birthday wish had come true?"

Valary nodded but Siana stared incredulously at her.

"Well," Riks said waving her arms around. "This is my wish."

There was silence.

"Wait, you mean you wished to s-see _dead_ people?" Siana spluttered.

"No," Valary whispered looking straight at Riks, "she wished to see Halloween."

"Well that's just great. So we're in _Halloween Land _and Annabelle's missing- jeez! You _know_ how Annabelle gets freaked so easily! It's a wonder she hasn't had a heart attack yet!"

Riks felt a stab of guilt from Siana's remark. It was all her fault that they were there and that Annabelle's gone missing (again) and that soon…soon…

She couldn't bring herself to even think it.

Valary watched Riks thinking. She knew what Riks was thinking, probably blaming herself for everything. But her face was panged and her body slumped, as if she was carrying some sort of invisible burden on her shoulders.

"There's something else isn't there." It wasn't a question. Valary knew she was hiding something.

Riks was quiet for a moment. She turned around and stood next to the window, staring out into nothing. When she spoke her voice was low and monotonous, and her words brought horror and shivers into her listening friends.

"Do you want to know what my wish was?" Valary did not want to know, but she didn't have a choice did she? She remained silent as Riks continued to speak.

"I wished for a place to call a home; a real home. I wished to meet my dad; I wished for my fantasies to come true." She took a breath and continued, her voice becoming more emotionless as she spoke.

"I wished to see Halloween in its true essence; not just people dressing up as something else, I wanted the real thing. I wished to visit whenever I liked, I wished to _join_ Halloween."

Riks turned and Valary saw that her eyes were not full of burning evil, but sorrow beyond sorrow. It twisted Valary's heart to see those eyes; they were to be pitied and comforted. The very force of Riks' emotions made Valary look away.

Riks continued to speak, barely a whisper now.

"When Halloween comes tomorrow night I'll become a part of it. And when Halloween goes…"

"What?" Siana implored. "What happens?" Siana knew that she wouldn't want to know what was going to happen, but they had no choice, they had to hear it.

"Tomorrow night a gate will open, and Halloween will visit the real world. Vampires will feast, monsters will scare and chaos is wreaked. This gate that opens up to the real world appears every year on Halloween night. But my wish made a second gate, the one in my room."

Riks chuckled, though it was not her pleasant chuckle. It made Siana step back and gave her thoughts of running down the stairs as far away from her.

"Uncle Thomas thought I had painted it; it scared him. He wouldn't put my clothes on my bed; no, he left them on the table." She chuckled again. "They're still there…"

"The pumpkin," Siana muttered. "That freaky picture! It was a gateway…?"

"So we've got two chances to go home," Valary said thoughtfully.

"For now."

"What?" Siana snapped. "Whaddya mean 'for now'?"

"At a second after midnight the way back home will be closed. Halloween will be over."

Silence filled the air again as they took in this information.

"Wait," Valary said thinking. "We can still get back via the gate in your room-"

"No. It'll disappear after Halloween." Riks looked at Valary. "I wished to join Halloween, so it'll only last until then."

"But you said that a gate opens up on Halloween night, so we can get back then as well," countered Siana.

"The gate only lasts until Halloween is over."

"A second past midnight," muttered Valary.

"We can get Annabelle back _way_ before then," Siana stated confidently.

Riks turned to stare back out the window. Her eyes were closed as Valary heard her whisper, "Let's hope we can."

--------

RIks is evil! Oo 20 chapters! wooo, never thought i'd write so much! thankyou everyone again for making me write all this!


	21. Glass Slipper Supper

GLASS SLIPPER SUPPER

The bathtub stopped and Annabelle just had time to sit up before she was grabbed and tossed out onto a hard floor. She landed on her backside and massaged it gently, wincing from the pain. She was in a dark room dimly lit by light coming in from a hole in the ceiling. The three kids that had snatched her stood next to the bathtub and watched with enthusiastic faces, looking past her at something else. Turning Annabelle came to see the most horrible thing. In front of her stood the monster of monsters with coarse dry skin and an unpleasant, cruel face; its eyes narrowed and menacing; its mouth grinning with gaping holes and bugs for teeth the crawled around its edges.

She opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out for she had been terrified into shock; and as she sat there, her mouth opening and closing in horror, the creepy children behind her laughed and sniggered at her- though one of them didn't seem as enthusiastic about it.

"Ah! Fresh meat for the grinder," Oogie Boogie sneered as he grasped Annabelle's arm and yanked her up, turning over her arm and hand, saying things like, "Mmm, tasty," or, "Ooo, I'll save that for later."

He laughed at Annabelle's trembling arms, and whispered in her ears things that made her cringe even more. Throwing her against the wall Annabelle heard something slithering beside her. Chains of cold metal snapped around her arms and pulled her body up so she was hanging from the wall, her feet dangling in air.

"Aaaahh! Help help!" she shrieked.

Barrel reached into his pocket and pulled out a spool of spiders' web that he chucked at Annabelle. It wrapped around her mouth, its sticky thread immobilising her lower face. She struggled and writhed, but the chains weren't budging and no sound escaped her mouth.

"She knows how to get to another world," Shock whispered.

"Another world?" bellowed the Boogie man.

"Y-yes," cringed Lock. "She came here, and there are others-"

"Others?"

Lock, Shock and Barrel winced at every word he said.

"Yeah, there's her and another girl and-"

"We think there's more," Shock quickly said, finishing Barrel's sentence.

"Hmm," Oogie paced around the room, his hollow eyes concentrating hard. Turning to Annabelle he moved to her at alarming speed, and in her face he demanded, "How do you get home little girl?"

She tilted her head as far away from him as she could, and stared frightfully with wide eyes. Oogie Boogie ripped off the spider thread and said again, "How're you getting home I asked."

"I-I don't know."

"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed, his rank breath nearly making her pass out.

"I don't know! I swear-"

"Get the hammer!" he yelled over his shoulder. One of the kids quickly scurried to do his bidding, and appeared with a rather large, rusty thing with stains on it.

"Now I'll ask again," Oogie Boogie said sweetly, tossing the device over his shoulder. "How do you get back?"

"I don't know! I'm telling the truth, I swear-"

"Bah!" he swung the hammer and Annabelle had just pulled up her legs in time-

WHAM. It smashed into the wall making some cement crumble out. Annabelle strained to keep her legs up under her chin. She had shut her eyes, and now peaked out one to see the Boogie Man close to her, his eyes furrowed deep and mouth curled with anger.

"She doesn't know!" Lock found himself shouting out. Shock and Barrel jumped, startled by Lock's outburst. Oogie Boogie turned and looked hard at Lock. He quickly said, "We'll find the others and f-find out from them."

There was a terrifying silence as Oogie Boogie thought over this, and Annabelle watched, hoping they'd let her go, hoping she'd be able to go home, hoping…

"Fine. Go and search. Bring them to me." He turned to look at Annabelle, and smiled a nasty smile. "And this one-" he said walking over to her, "-you can fix for my dinner."


	22. A Cinderella Horror

A CINDERELLA HORROR

Shock hummed as she boiled up the pot, stirring the murky water. Barrel had gone to start searching, and Lock was meant to be watching their prisoner. He couldn't bring himself to look at her; her mournful face, dark brunette hair, skinny arms and legs so pale, so very very pale…Snapping out of his daze, he thought of an idea.

"Why Shock," he said carefully, "you must be bored. Why don't you start searching for those other people so we can get out of here quicker?" He whispered, "Barrel's not exactly going to help with things, is he?"

Shock, absolutely falling for his plan sneered, "Yeah, that stupid git can't even see in the dark. But can I trust you not to make a mess of things? It's an awful lot of responsibility." She sniggered and said, "I think I'll stay around to make sure things go right."

"Get out of here. I can do this little thing," he snarled, snatching the stick and stirring the pot.

"Okay then, if you say so." She crossed the room and went down some stairs. Lock ran to the window and watched her appear at the bottom of the mansion and scurry towards town.

"Okay, good," he muttered. Turning, he brought himself to look at Annabelle. She sat cross-legged on the floor; leant against a pole, her head craned to rest on her shoulder. Hurrying over to her, Locks hands worked quickly to unbind her, and she stirred sleepily.

"Hurry! Wake up!" He hissed, nudging her.

"Wha?"

"No time!" helping her to her feet, Lock pulled her into the cage and tugged a lever on the wall. The cage shook, and started going down. Annabelle backed away from him, watching with wide eyes.

Rocking vigorously the cage came to a stop, and Lock sprang out. He looked back and saw Annabelle still standing there with her eyes on him.

"Come on! What are you waiting for?" he said angrily.

"Why are you helping me?"

Lock started. He suddenly realized what his actions would cause. Shock wouldn't trust him with anything. He would be punished by Oogie Boogie. And all for her? Why did he care what happens to her? Why did he _care_?

"Do you _want_ to get eaten?" he said quickly.

Shaking her head roughly she jumped out of cage and ran to him. They darted outside across the bridge, into a forest of dead trees.

"Get to town, quickly!" he said pointing in the direction.

"Thank you."

Annabelle ran; her hair and dress whipping around her as she headed for the dim lights. At that moment Lock thought that all the trouble that he caused and all the shame that would come with it would be worth it. For her, anything is worth it. He stared after she had gone, longing to start after her, but he knew he could not. He could never.

Turning he scurried back to the mansion, trying to come up with a story. As he rode the cage back up the tower he noticed a gleam of light reflecting off something on the floor. Squinting, he picked it up. In his hands lay a beautiful gold tiara with little black hearts on its sides. Smiling, he exited the cage and sat on the floor, just staring at it.


	23. The Morning After

THE MORNING AFTER

Valary woke with a start, confused at first because she had been dreaming vividly. In her dream she had been attacked by serpents of bandages that grabbed her, winding their way up her arms and legs so tightly she could feel blood coming out from the bruises, but then flying science books whose pages were sharp and ragged snapping open and closed as if it were a mouth attacked her head, and white spectres with rattling chains clanged around her, shoving her and shrieking so violently Valary thought her ears might start bleeding too.

Thankfully the text books had disappeared and the ghosts weren't for real, but the bandages that she had been wearing around her head and neck like a scarf had come down over her face and pulled tight around her neck as she had thrashed out whilst in her dreams.

Disentangling herself, she looked over at the fireplace to see Siana sprawled on the ground before it, curled up like the cat she dressed as, her breathes heard between the sharps of her teeth.

Valary lay back sighing. She had hoped that _this_ had all been a dream. They have to find Annabelle before midnight then get back, and then...

Then what? She thought to herself. Will we be friends after all this? Will we just forget that this happened?

Valary wasn't blaming anyone for getting stuck in Halloween. To her it was a big roller coaster ride, but now the ride's become really freaky. There's a chance they'll never get back, and they'll have to live the rest of their lives in Halloween. What would that be like?

She tried imagining herself making a living as an artist, marrying a zombie and having zombie babies. She snorted and said, "over my dead body." then laughed at the irony of it.

"What's so funny?"

Valary leaned on her elbow and looked into the corner of the room where the light of the coals cast deep shadows. She made out the outline of Riks leaning against the wall, the whites of her eyes glowed from the darkness as she stared back at Valary.

"Nothing."

Riks eyes disappeared as she yawned widely. Valary noticed a pair of sharp fangs before they disappeared behind her lips. Creeping out from the shadows, Riks plopped herself next to the bed, and watched Siana's sleeping figure.

"Riks?"

"Hmm?"

"Do you really think of this place as your home?"

Riks looked at Valary, her eyes seemed to bore into Riks and she looked away. Slowly she answered, "I feel like I...belong here."

Valary had noticed something about Riks, but she continued with the conversation.

"You wished to see you dad. Have you- well- have you found him yet?"

Riks craned her head up at Valary, and Valary saw it again. Riks' eyes. At first Valary had thought they were a deep brown, but now she saw that was only her right eye. Her left iris was the colour of the sea in a storm, that grey-turquoise hue that could either be peaceful or raging.

Riks smiled and opened her mouth to say something, but then she stopped, her pupils snapped around to the stairs, her smile dropping. She got up.

Valary jumped as she saw Jack appear from the stairwell. The skeleton had made no sound, but Riks seemed unfazed.

"Good morning," she said.

"Hello," Jack said, surpirsed. "Who're you?"

"My name's Riks," she replied holding out her hand.

"Jack Skellington." They shook hands.

"Riks is it? Strange name," he added frowning.

As she shrugged Siana yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"I'm guessing you haven't found Annabelle," Valary stated.

"No ones seen your friend," Jack said shaking his head. "We'll take one last look around town and then we'll search the outskirts. But first you lot need something to eat."

"Great! I'm starved," piped Siana who had jumped up quickly.

Valary raised an eyebrow at Riks who had a look of amusement on her face.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh, nothing."

She grinned at Valary, and followed Jack and Siana downstairs. Valary- growing suspicious of Riks- made a note to herself not to eat anything until someone else tastes it first.

-

That was a boring chap. I'm trying to speed up the story's pace cos it seems to go a bit too slow. Expect more excitement in the next chap!

Sorry for irregular update, started school again sigh


	24. Suspicions

SUSPICIONS

Annabelle wandered through the forest; heading in what she thought was towards the town, which was in fact away. Far, far away. Annabelle began to tire, and sat against a tree. All the trees looked the same, and it was dark, but she surprisingly wasn't scared. Well she might've been if she hadn't have been tired, hungry and feeling as though her annoying little brother was hammering away at the back of her head like he had been a couple of days ago...

A drop of water fell on her knee and Annabelle realized she was crying. Pulling her knees up, she rocked against the tree and fell into uneasy sleep.

* * *

"Eeargh!" Siana jerked away from the plate of 'food' Jack offered. "Yuck! Don't' be disgusting!"

Valary stared sceptically at the platter Jack put onto the table, wondering whether it was normal to think that the food actually looked delicious. Jack put the food on the table and disappeared upstairs. Valary warily approached the food. The mouldy cheese with maggots' emerging from it looked...appetizing. Valary found herself reaching out for it, and quickly snapped her hand back.

"Valary. Valary!" Siana said in a low voice. Valary came to her as she drew her head out from a cupboard.

"Look at this!" She pointed at the jars. Instead of a variety of spreads, the jars were labelled as such things as 'dried spiders', 'newts' and 'wormswart'.

"Do they actually eat this?" Siana carefully picked up a jar and studied its contents, but quickly put it back when Jack reappeared.

"Well what did you expect? Candy cane?" Valary whispered back. To Jack she said, "Are we going soon?"

"Yes, best to go before-"

Suddenly a shrill scream echoed through the house as the Mayor pulled the doorbell. Siana jumped and grabbed Valary who was nearly knocked into the platter of food. Jack peeled the curtain back and snuck a peek before quickly putting it back in place.

"It's the Mayor," he whispered.

"What-" Jack put his fingers to his bone of a lip and beckoned them to the back of the house.

"Sorry, but why the Mayor?" Siana said.

"He always comes here. I shouldn't be so listening to him." Jack rubbed his temples. "What to do, what to do?" he said to himself. "If he knows I'm here he'll never leave!"

"But we need your help to find Annabelle," Siana pleaded.

"No we can look for her ourselves," Riks said.

"Someone better answer the door-"

The doorbell rang again, and the person called for Jack.

Sighing, Jack went to greet the Mayor. They heard the door open and Jack talking to someone.

"What do we do?" Siana asked no one in particular, but Jack soon reappeared by himself.

"I'm sorry I won't be able to help you," he said quickly. "Today's Halloween and the celebrations on tonight. If I don't-"

"It's okay, you be King, we can find Annabelle," said Riks.

"Well if you want help find Sally, she'll be around, check the lab-"

"Jack!" someone called.

"I have to go, are you sure-"

"We're good, you'd better go!"

"Right."

He left, and they heard the door close behind him.

"Poor Jack," said Siana.

"We'd better go too," Riks advised. "Just getting my stuff." She ran up the stairs, her greyed-olive dress swirling around her. Siana turned to Valary.

"So…does she really, I mean, she's really going to stay behind?"

Valary avoided looking at her, but focused on the platter of food left untouched by the girls. A worm popped out of the cheese and burrowed back into it.

"She didn't want Jack to help us," Siana stated.

Valary chose her words and said slowly, "Well Jack probably has better things to do than look around for Annabelle. Besides Riks knows her way around here."

"Maybe…" Siana sat down on the floor and rubbed her furry ears. "But, what if she doesn't want to find Annabelle?"

Valary looked away from the food to Siana. Her head was down, her hands fiddling.

"Why wouldn't she want to help us?"

"Maybe she doesn't want us to leave." Siana lifted her navy blue eyes to Valary's emerald eyes.

"Maybe she wants to keep us here with her."

* * *

Heh heh heh I'm back! Sorry, school work and sport and art and I was starting to get bored of TNBC so I took a break. I also re read this series Pumpkin Gate and I found so many errors I was really feeling ashamed of myself by the end of it! for instance I said that it was a person named Spencer who tied the radio to the roof, and then later on I said it was Riks' uncle and oooh sooo embarrassing I kept getting Siana and Valary confused when they were talking! Soo my writing style might have changed a bit BEWARE.

Thankyou to those faithful reviewers! THANKYOU


	25. Staccato Friendship

STACCATO FRIENDSHIP

Riks came down the stairs two at a time.

"Sorry I couldn't find-" she tripped over the last step and went flying forward but caught herself on the hand rail. Cautiously she stepped down onto the floor and smiled weakly.

"Um, so we're ready?" she asked.

"Yeah. Let's go." Valary opened the door to an orange sky. She walked slowly down the narrow steps. Siana followed quietly while Riks readjusted her bag with her umbrella poking out from it, making her way carefully.

"Woah." Valary stopped Siana and Riks before the gate, and they peered through the bars at the scene before them.

There were tables and stalls, and people everywhere. Now that it was morning the girls saw that the town was decorated in black and orange, whether spots or stripes it didn't matter. As they made their way through the crowd Siana could hear the wails of the banshees as they warmed up their voices, and she quickly concentrated on listening to the chatter and excitement around her. Sliding around some hairy ogre as he hauled along a trailer full of pumpkins, the girls found themselves at the well with the goblin statue. Standing up on it, Riks looked over the bustling beings.

"Hey get down!" Siana tugged on Riks, looking fearfully at the well. "There's a fish lady that lives here!"

"She's over there." Riks pointed to a tent on the other side of the grounds where Siana could just make out her slimy green scales through the gaps in the crowd.

"Still. We'll never find Annabelle here," groaned Siana. "She's probably already squashed underneath everyone."

"True she won't be here," Valary agreed.

"Okay." Riks scanned the crowds one last time before jumping down. "This way."

Riks led them deeper into the crowd. The place smelt strongly of sugar and rot, or so it did to Siana. She kept close to Riks who seemed to make the crowd part just by her presence. Valary was having a hard time keeping up in her narrow skirt, as she dodged a clown and old woman, and suddenly lost sight of Siana. Trying to catch up she ran forward, dodging her way around everyone.

They were gone, and Valary panicking, started to push her way through. She broke out of the crowd to find herself facing a narrow street. Looking back she could see no signs of Riks or Siana, nor could she recognize where she was. Not wanting to go back through the crowd, Valary quickly started down the street hoping it went round the block. She turned left at the next street and hurried down past houses and out of perspective units. The roads were empty as all the inhabitants were at the town square. Though it was morning the sun was a weak ball in the sky, casting dim shadows.

She spotted up ahead a monstrous gate that opened out to countryside of bare trees and rolling hills.

"Darn," she muttered, looking in the empty Gatekeeper's booth. The door was ajar, so she moved inside. She sat down on the uncomfortable chair. Sighing, she leaned her head on her hands. She'd had a rough night trying to sleep. Suddenly she wasn't so sure of Riks. She now seems twisted; so different to how Valary pictured her back before the party. Some party…

Riks was now a stranger. 'You never know someone until you see their other side.' Those words seem fitting for Riks. But now she's their only key to get out Halloween, and to getting Annabelle back. But, that can wait.

Valary wanted to rest- without other company. She buried her head in her arms and tried to get Riks' face out of her head.


	26. Sickness

SICKNESS

"Valary! Where are you! Riks, wait!"

Siana grabbed Riks' dress, trying not to get separated. People growled as they stepped around them. Siana and Riks glanced around them, fruitlessly trying to find Valary's blood red hair.

"Too many people!" Riks shout in Siana's ear.

"Okay don't yell!" Massaging her ears, they pulled over to the side near some stalls.

Frustratingly pushing through the bustle of people, they finally came to a small clearing just outside the tent. Cauldrons were bubbling with two tiny witches stirring, the stench making their stomachs tighten.

"Where'd she go?" groaned the blonde-haired girl. But Riks turned to the witches.

"Er, excuse me," she asked. Stopping, they looked at the girls with faces as appealing as a dead cane toads.

"Whad'd'ya want?" screeched the short witch with black frizzy hair.

"You wouldn't happen to know where Sally is, do you?"

"Not 'ere," grumbled the other witch, going back to her stirring.

"Ya see? Not here!" And both ignoring the tall girls, turned their backs to show their dry masses of frizz.

"Scragmoles!" Siana said as they left the tent. "Bloody scragmoles! And we have to find _Valary_ first, not _Sally_."

After scanning the area for the slightest hint to where Jack's girl was, Riks sighed and sat on a low wall. Siana crouched beside her, fiddling with the fur on her ears. No one took any notice of the strangers resting.

Groaning, Riks rubbed her temples. This is all wrong…

"Are you alright?" asked Siana, concerned.

"No," she said truthfully. "Just got a headache. Oh," she groaned, again. Her temples burned, and her throat was suddenly as rough as sandpaper.

"Jeez Riks, did you have anything to eat?"

"No…" Another moan.

Looking around helplessly, Siana saw the fountain. Its water was disgusting, but…

"Come on." She made Riks get up, and dragged her through the crowd to the well. Splashing water on Riks' face didn't help, and she wouldn't let her drink the water. Now her whole body was burning, and sweat trickled down her face into her panting mouth. Her eyes were glazed as she tried to focus on Siana, but she was so dizzy, couldn't she just lie down and rest…

"Help! Somebody help!"

---------

I am baack! Thankyou to those reviewers who have suddenly reviewed, you kept me going! I am going to finish this fanfic, which will probably the first fic that I finish! Thankyou again to NinjaoftheDarkness and Strange Fuzz.


	27. Confrontations

CONFRONTATIONS

Riks gasped. Her throat was on fire. She couldn't breathe.

Faces appeared before her but as soon as she started to see their features they were whisked away before appearing again, taunting Riks as she struggled to comprehend. Her head seared with agonizing pain as she moved her limbs.

The ground was being annoying, why won't it stay still? She couldn't walk properly if it didn't stay still, she didn't even feel like walking at all, she could hardly breathe to walk. The air was buzzing, the heat pushing against her clammy, paled face. Her legs crumbled underneath her, but there was an arm around her waist and she gave a cry, lashing out around her; but they held on, more arms, and she was held down, her cries dying away to groans as she slumped down. The heat of the bodies next to hers made her struggle and scream. Their voices were echoing in her pounding head.

"…WHAT'S WRONG-WRONG-WRong-wrong-wrong…"

"…STOP-STOP-stop-stop…FEVER-FEVER-Fever-fever…"

-----

"Stop moving Riks! What's going on?"

"Her fever's getting higher," said Sally. "I've never seen anything like this." She stirred a small cauldron, putting in a sachet that smelt of bitter herbs.

Siana wiped the sweat from the girl's forehead. Her friend lying on the examinationtable was gasping- her mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, eyes rolling beneath their dark lids. Convulsions of shivers violently ran through her body, jerking her head.

Eyes teary, Siana looked away from her and got a face full of the pungent liquid Sally had prepared.

"Did she eat something? Was she sick before?"

"No, she was fine."

Sally frowned. She swirled the thick liquid, then passed it to the younger girl. "Give her some of this- only small spoonfuls."

"Okay…" Holding her breath, Siana put a spoonful near her friend's mouth, but Riks muttered agitatedly turning her head from side to side. A lump formed in the back of her throat as she watched the sweat drip off her pallid face. She tried again, hesitating to put her other hand on her thin lips, pushing her mouth open-

A sudden whirring sound made Sally spin and gasp, her pupils mere dots against the whites of her eyes, nearly dropping the Essence of Breath she was holding. Siana shrieked as a shriveled grey hand lashed out across her face and smacked the wooden spoon out of her hand.

"You silly girl! You would have killed her!"

Sally edged away from the deteriorated figure, whose pink eyes were veiled behind darks shades that did nothing for his large protruding head and uncolored lips that were curled between a sneer and look of disgust.

"D-Doctor…Finklestein…"

* * *

Thankyou so much to everyone who's reviewed, you've really kept me going and I will try very hard to finish very soon! I've got so many more stories to write, but I won't be unfaithful to those who have added this to their favs. It will be hard since I'm year 11 this year (OMG I'm old!). Thanks everyone! PS this was very short, but its taken me weeks to get right! 


End file.
